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Introduction and Invitation
Constructing resources for assessment and instruction
related to the eleven student outcomes contained in Criterion 3
of the ABET Engineering Criteria requires contributions across the
entire engineering community. If you have one or more resources
(for example, helpful papers, survey forms, assessment materials,
instructional materials) for assessment and/or instructional related
to outcome e click here. Please indicate whether and how you
would like your contribution to be acknowledged. Thanks for contributing
the growing understanding of how we might help engineering students
develop knowledge and skills that they will draw upon throughout
their careers.
Learning Objectives
The first step in selecting assessment and instructional approaches
for a learning outcome is to formulate learning objectives that
support the outcome. Learning objectives describe expectations associated
with the outcome in terms of expected and observable performances.
Several researchers have already constructed learning objectives
and these may provide worthwhile starting points for others.
A team of researchers (Larry Shuman, Mary E. Besterfield-Sacre,
Harvey Wolfe, Cynthia J. Atman, Jack McGourty, Ronald L. Miller,
Barbara M. Olds, and Gloria M. Rogers) working a NSF-supported project,
Engineering
Education: Assessment Methodologies and Curricula Innovation,
used Bloom's
Taxonomy to develop and organize a set of learning objectives
for outcome 3e (identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems)
[1]. Their work illustrates a challenge in addressing
outcome e. For this outcome, they constructed 37 different outcome
elements. For each outcome element, they developed learning objectives
for each of the six levels in Bloom's taxonomy. resulting in more
than 102 learning objectives. Addressing all these learning objectives
in four-year engineering curricula could be difficult.
The Chemical Engineering Department at McMaster
University developed its McMaster
Problem Solving (MPS) Program [2] to improve
the problem-solving capabilities of its BS graduates. Reflecting
the breadth of skills required to improve problem-solving capabilities,
MPS has 58 units and learning objectives for each unit.
Assessment Approaches
In a report from the National Research Council,
Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational
Assessment [3], assessment, once expectations have
been constructed, rests on three pillars: cognition, observation,
and interpretation. Following this recommendation, the present section
has subsections for each of the three pillars and then offers suggestions
on assessment approaches for outcome e.
Theories of Cognition
Under development (16 February 2005)
Theories of Observation
Under development (16 February 2005)
Theories of Interpretation
Under development (16 February 2005)
Potential Assessment
Resources
Heppner Problem Solving Inventory
The Problem Solving Inventory [4] is a 35-item,
6-point Likert-scale that measures beliefs about problem solving
and styles used in problem solving. It does not measure problem
solving skills. It was one of the assesment instruments used in
assessment the McMaster Problem Solving program [2]
Under development (16 February 2005)
Instructional Approaches
Under construction (18 Jan 2005)
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